Explanation:
Can the
Hubble Space Telescope
take a picture that shows the Apollo
lunar modules
on the Moon?
With its
2.4
meter diameter mirror, the smallest object that the
Hubble can
resolve at
the Moon's distance
of around 400,000 kilometers is about 80 meters across.
So, from low Earth orbit even
Hubble's sharp vision can not image the Apollo lunar module
descent stages, at most a few meters across,
left behind at the
lunar landing sites.
A space telescope over ten times the size of Hubble could ...
or a much smaller telescope in close lunar orbit.
In fact, this picture does just resolve Apollo 17's
Lunar Module, Challenger,
and its shadow on the cratered
floor of the Taurus-Littrow
valley in the Moon's Mare Serenitatis.
It was taken in 1972 from the Apollo 17
Command Module, America,
orbiting about 100 kilometers above the Moon's surface
and covers an area about 1.1 kilometers wide.
Using a web site
created by Dan Durda of Southwest Research Institute,
armchair astronauts can explore orbital views of
this and the 5 other
Apollo
lunar landing sites.